S. African Blacks Protest In 3 Cities

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A small part of South Africa`s 23 million- strong black majority tasted freedom on Friday and vowed to come back for more in greater numbers.

Thousands of cheering, singing and placard-waving anti-government protesters brought downtown Johannesburg to a standstill as they marched behind the outlawed African National Congress flag to police headquarters at John Vorster Square, the citadel of white Afrikaner authority, and demanded an end to police brutality and the imprisonment of political dissenters.

In Pretoria, chanting and swaying black protesters danced around the statue of former Prime Minister John Vorster as scores of white police officers looked on.

In Port Elizabeth, placard-bearing anti-apartheid lawyers gathered at the city`s main square to protest police violence.

The state-run South African Broadcasting Corp., which normally minimizes opposition protest, estimated the crowd in Johannesburg at 25,000 people, although at its peak it appeared to be closer to 15,000.

Court permission for the demonstration was not issued until 20 minutes before it began, and parade organizers declared the turnout a success beyond expectations.

Anti-apartheid leaders announced that on Sept. 23, a women`s ``march for peace`` will be held in Pretoria in an attempt to re-enact the last big anti- government protest authorized by the government, in 1959.

On Tuesday, President Frederik W. de Klerk said that the government will no longer oppose mass political demonstrations if they are conducted peacefully.

His dramatic shift in longstanding policy has triggered a wave of civil rights fervor in South Africa and a clamor for more demonstrations against the apartheid system of racial separation.

``Those in power have come to realize they can`t hold people back forever. They (blacks) have to express themselves,`` the Rev. Frank Chikane, an anti- apartheid leader, said on Friday in Johannesburg.

The march, ``shows that if we are given the chance, we can work for peace. It is up to the government to open the doors of peace by acting on our demonstrations and begin working toward a new constitution,`` he said.

There was no immediate reaction from the government, but de Klerk said on Tuesday that he hoped peaceful protest could stimulate black leaders to start a dialogue with whites.

Anti-apartheid campaigners have long argued that if the three-year-old emergency prohibitions against peaceful protest were lifted, blacks would give expression to their political aspirations without jeopardizing the security of the state.